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[mko72]

I was watching some guys fish for salmon today where a school of about 15 were holding. 

There were three guys. 

One guy with a fly rod and a sinking fly, one guy casting a gold spoon, and another guy casting a red/white spinner. 

Not one of them caught a fish.  What caught my eye was the guy throwing the red/white spinner did about 5 cast and retrieves. Then attached a float to his line.  If I understand this right, you can attach a float and a spinner and the current will cause it to spin, right?  So homeboy now casts out with his float, and just lets it sit there. The current is slow, and the water so low that it's not moving.  Is he ever going to catch a fish doing this? 

They didn't even get a bite.  Is this just a timing issue, not a lot of fish biting at 1PM in the afternoon?  Should he be doing this at dusk?

Thanks for any explanation of the "dangle and spinner" technique.

[mko72]

Oh right, and would wool be effective?  Should I use a small hook, like a 4, or something like a size 1?
Thanks

[Rodney]

Spinner fished under a float can be very effective, especially for coho salmon and steelhead. If the river current is slow or none, then you need to cast and slowly retrieve to create movement on the spinner just like if you are fishing with only a spinner on the line. The only difference is that you should retrieve at a much slower speed, otherwise the spinner would travel too close to the surface and that doesn't work so well. The float keeps the spinner off the bottom, so you can retrieve as slowly as you want it without snagging up on the bottom (that's assuming you have adjusted your float depth correctly).

Here is a video of catching a coho salmon with a spinner under the float.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3OBwKnBsCU

Here is a video of catching winter steelhead with a Hildebrandt Little Shaver spoon under the float. Note that the current is a low stronger here so the lure is not retrieved while it drifts downstream. Instead, a bit of tension is created by holding the float back, which gives the lure more action as it drifts downstream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzRNLKxLxG4

[mko72]

Gotcha.  Slow retrieve in slow water, size 1 hook.

I didn't know a spoon can create it's normal action under a float.